Aug 17 Backpacking Europe - Home Video

Video Memories

It has been 3 years since the summer we spent backpacking in Europe. I still get really proud of ourselves for pulling a trip like this off. Once we returned to the states, I only focused on editing and sharing our photos from the trip. I knew I had recorded a bunch of videos, but the thought of logging and editing all of it intimidated the crap out of me. That was until this year. I decided to surprise Sayla with this video for her birthday. I know, I’m so romantic.

This video is only the first part of the trip. It spans our experience of Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and France. I still have to work through the footage from the south of France, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Amsterdam, and the UK. The rest will most likely need to be divided into 3 videos. So. Much. Footage.

What was this filmed with?

I swear I am squeezing every last drop out of my Nikon D600. This was the first camera I had ever used with a full-frame image sensor. It honestly keeps me falling back in love with filming and documenting experiences. This camera paired with a Nikon 50mm f1.8 and the Nikon 24-120mm f/4 gave me a wide variety of focal lengths while not over encumbering my bag. There is also footage from my iPhone 7+ throughout the video to help tell the story. It’s true, the best camera you have is the one that is with you.

I did all of the color grading and editing in DaVinci Resolve. I absolutely love using this application. The file organization and user interface fit my workflow unlike any other software I have used so far (iMovie, Final Cut, Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas). But hey, that’s just my opinion. I found a Kodak print film LUT that I knew would bring out all of the colors and textures that I wanted. It is free, and you can download it from Juan Melara’s blog. The music I felt best expressed my edit are tracks by the 1975, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, and Shibuya.

Finding the Blue Heron on Youtube?

Yes. This is the first upload to our Youtube channel. There is not much there yet, but we will upload as we travel more. Sayla and I have a lot more trips ideas in the works. A lot. So if you want to see more, SMASH THAT SUBSCRIBE BUTTON. Just kidding. Well… kind of.

We mostly wanted to save our memories of our travels for ourselves and also for our kids to see one day. Uploading to Youtube also makes it easy to share them with our friends and family. It’s always so much fun to hear back from everyone about what they thought of the video.

As always, we appreciate everyone so much for the support. We would always travel, but sharing our experiences and hearing about yours makes life so much more interesting.